“About 4 years ago I started my business which is called ‘Puremelt Chocolate Byron Bay.’ It really began about 9 years ago when I went to see a professor of medicine in Brisbane. As a tired older mum, I had two boys at 37 and 39 and was extremely tired.
He put me on what is now quite a trendy diet, The Paleo diet. I was basically eating nuts and seeds, fruit and veg, meat and fish and nothing else but I was told I had to eat 50 grams a day of 85% pure cacao chocolate. It was fantastic having this treat everyday but it was a challenge finding good quality, sugar free chocolate so a friend taught me how to make raw chocolate from scratch and I thought that’s how everybody made chocolate. I would melt down the cacao butter, blend in the cacao powder, a little bit of dark agave syrup and a lot of freshly scraped vanilla which counteracts the bitterness of the cacao. I started making it for family and friends and they loved it.
Meanwhile I became healthier and healthier and I went back to have pathology done and he said your fertility levels have doubled. I was 43 and we decided to have another child. I conceived in three months. all because of the chocolate. Having that beautiful treat also enabled me to stick to healthy diet so I didn’t feel like I was depriving myself.
I went to London to visit my mother and I passed this Chocolatier and they had a class so I thought maybe I can learn something here. He talked about cacao pods and cacao powder then he poured all these chocolate buttons into a pan and said this is how we make chocolate. That’s when I realised most Chocolatiers make it from chocolate buttons, milk, cream and sugar. But what I was doing was really quite special as I was making it from scratch and it was healthy. Cacao is the most antioxidant rich food that exists.
When I returned I went to Mullumbimby markets and got a spot there and started making a few hundred chocolates a week, I launched at Sample Food festival and we just won a bronze medal at The Melbourne Fine Food Awards for my brownie. We won the plate last year at Sample and we’ve just started wholesaling so we are now in Spar at Wyrallah Rd and Fundies in Lismore. We do The Lismore Carboot Market and here at The Lismore Farmers Market every Thurday.
My dream and my vision is to set up my own chocolate lounge in Mullumbimby where people can come and see it being made, eat indulgent treats that are cane sugar free, totally ethical fair trade, have a mug of delicious drinking chocolate or a beautiful organic chai we do as well. Since coming to Lismore I’ve met so many wonderful people, I find new and interesting things each time and I have lovely loyal customers.”